On Sunday, a tragedy occurred at a music festival and now more than a dozen lawsuits have been filed against event organiser Live Nation Entertainment and musician Travis Scott. Over 300 people were treated for injuries, with 13 of them still hospitalised as of yesterday. Eight persons between the ages of 14 and 27 perished, while over 300 were treated for injuries.
Authorities are still investigating what happened, but fans claim that during Travis Scott’s performance, a stampede smashed concertgoers toward the stage. So far, Live Nation has been scrutinised in two areas:
The stage is set. 50,000 festivalgoers congregated on one stage because Travis Scott was the only artist performing during his time slot. There were no barricades or barriers deployed to divide the gathering into parts.
Security employees were not fully trained to handle the throng, experts told the WSJ, due to a labour shortage. The crowd was so noisy that Houston Police Chief Troy Finner reportedly “conveyed worries about the intensity in the crowd” to Travis Scott before his appearance.
Not long after Travis Scott declared that he’d cover therapy and funeral costs, Live Nation has responded by offering to refund all attendees’ tickets and create a fund to pay for victims’ medical bills.
This isn’t the first time Live Nation has suffered a setback.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the world’s largest concert promoter—which also owns Ticketmaster, and puts on major events like Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo—has been linked to around 200 deaths and 750+ injuries since 2006. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which governs workplace safety in the United States, has also cited it for several safety infractions.
Live Nation also produces the following events:
The Route 91 Harvest event in Las Vegas, where 58 people were killed in a mass shooting in 2017.
A suicide bomber killed 22 people at Ariana Grande’s concert in Manchester, England.
In 2019, the first Astroworld event took place at the same location as this year’s. In a stampede, three people were hurt.
Looking ahead, medical examiners could take weeks to release the findings of their probe. Travis Scott postponed his set at the Day N Vegas event this weekend, where he would have been the lone headliner performing during his time slot once again.